Change of Fate
by Ametera
Summary: What if the older spirit of Zangetsu never saw the need to lie to Ichigo, or restrain his powers? And what if Ichigo was fast enough, that the younger spirit was never hollowfied? Let's see how events would change, shall we? /Not sure if I'm going to continue this or not, so please don't pressure me./


Ichigo shut his eyes in pain as the chain corroded, the small hollow-like creatures moving onto the next chain. In his mind he desperately reached out for the familiar feeling of his Shinigami powers, unwilling to be turned into a hollow.

'_No. No! I won't go down this way, I have to save Rukia!' _Ichigo mentally shouted. His view went black.

When Ichigo once again opened his eyes, he found himself standing sideways on a skyscraper, in the distance he could faintly see buildings crumble away into a black void. Ichigo involuntarily shivered.

"Ichigo." A older male voice called out from behind him.

Ichigo spun around to see two people, both males, one a similar age to him while the other was far older.

"Huh, who are you two?" Ichigo asked, frowning.

The younger smirked, looking at him with vivid gold eyes, "**We're the spirits of your Zanpakuto. But we won't be soon if you don't get off your lazy ass and find your Shinigami powers.**" The Zanpakuto spirit explained bluntly.

"But how do I find it?" Ichigo asked.

The older spirit gestured around them to the white boxes floating through the air, "In one of these is our Sword forms, you must find them before the mindscape collapses." He explained.

The younger cut in, "**But we'll give you one hint. Look for the red.**" He spoke.

Then, the two spirits faded out of sight.

"'Look for the red'?" Ichigo repeated in confusion. All the boxes around him were white. But then again, it did remind him of that trick Uryu pulled with the ribbons, all white except for one… red.

Ichigo brought a hand up to his face, "I'm an idiot." He groaned. Closing his eyes in concentration, he willed the familiar ribbons into the mindscape.

Ichigo opened his eyes again, to see a sea of white ribbons, and in it, one bright red. Grabbing onto the coloured ribbon, Ichigo pulled, idly noting half of the mindscape was now gone. The red box flew to him, the lid opening to show the hilts of two swords.

"**Pull us out!**" The voices of the two spirits echoed in unison.

Ichigo placed one on each hilt and pulled.

Power surged through Ichigo, and the eyes he didn't realise he closed snapped open. Noting he was back in Urahara's training ground, he lept out of the hole, the weight of one sword on his back, and the other on his right side.

In front of him, Urahara grinned cheerfully, snapping the fan in his hand shut, "Well done, Ichigo. shall we move onto Stage Three now?"

Ichigo fumed, remembering his promise of what he would do should he get out of the Shattered Shaft. In the back of his mind he could hear the voice of the younger Zanpakuto Spirit cheer his thoughts on, and the older radiating small amounts of anger at Urahara.

"Urahara…" Ichigo spoke.

Urahara looked at him, "Yes, Ichigo?"

"You're so dead for that." Ichigo snarled, hands twitching slightly in wish to be holding one of his swords, so he could exact his revenge for Urahara's stunt.

Urahara looked at him in amusement, but ignored his comment, "The Third Stage will require you to knock off my hat." He spoke simply.

Ichigo frowned, "This isn't going to be as easy as it sounds, isn't it…" He asked.

Urahara merely grinned before lifting up his ever-present cane, "Awaken, Benihime." He stated.

The cane transformed into a sword, with a black hilt and a red tassel dangling from it's end. Urahara raised the sword before quickly slashing at Ichigo.

Ichigo quickly lifted the larger sword off his back block the blade, but his eyes widened in shock as cracks appeared on his own blade. Quickly pulling out the smaller sword with his free hand, he swiped at Urahara's hat, only for the green-clad man to jump away.

Looking at the crack in the larger sword, fear sparked only to be quickly ripped apart, '_No… I can't be scared, if I cower here I can never protect anyone!_' He thought determinedly.

'_**That's the attitude!**_' He heard the younger spirit in his mind crow.

Ichigo blinked in surprise as he saw the Spirits from his mindscape materialise next to him, slightly transparent, but there nonetheless.

"Listen Ichigo. You may defeat Urahara, but you cannot fear, otherwise you will lose every battle you enter." The older Spirit chastised Ichigo.

"**So, abandon your fear.**" The younger said seriously.

"Look forward." The older continued.

"**Move forward and never stop.**"

"You'll age if you pull back."

"**You'll die if you hesitate.**"

"**So call our name!**" The two commanded in unison before disappearing.

Ichigo held to two swords forward, instinctively pointing them towards the ground, "Zangetsu!" Ichigo shouted before azure reiatsu exploded out of him, covering his form.

As the reiatsu faded away, Ichigo spared a small glance at his new Zanpakuto. The larger sword had taken the form of a black khyber knife, with a hollowed out portion inside the blade, while the smaller resembled a black trench knife.

Ichigo instinctively crossed the two swords, calling out a warning, "Urahara, you'd best dodge this."

Urahara looked confused, "And why is that, Ichigo?"

"Because I can't control it yet." Ichigo spoke, making a slashing motion with both swords as they glowed with power, "_Getsuga Jujisho!_" He commanded.

A wave of cross-shaped energy rocketed out of the swords, destroying the ground it skimmed as it headed towards it's target.

Urahara's eyes widened, "_Chikasumi no Tate._" He spoke, waving his Zanpakuto to bring up a red shield that floated in front of him.

The red shield and blue energy clashed in a fight for dominance.

**AN:**

**And that's the end of Chapter One! To be honest, this story was done purely on whim, because hey, there's nothing saying I can't. Of course, that means sometimes the chapters, if I do decide to continue this, may be spaced out in random amounts of time, depending on how motivated I am (and considering I'm do art first, and write second, that may be lacking sometimes).**

**Although, for anyone who wants a simplified version of my all-over-the-place thoughts that was condensed into writing, basically Ichigo get's the Dual Zangetsu from the get-go, he doesn't have a Hollowfied Zanpakuto to worry over, and things get's destroyed from his ever lacking precision. **

**In the same thought from the paragraph before the last, if anyone wants to pick up this idea and perform a casual story-napping, I won't really mind. Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else do this type of thing yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to do this idea justice, scatter-brained as I am.**

**So, see you in about likely fifteen-million years, because I have a memory that's about one step above a goldfish. Bye!**


End file.
